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Polite robbery

Polite robber knows his manners

Thursday 10 February 2011

A robber is not usually known for his manners, however Gregory Hess certainly knows his please and thank you's. 

 

Gregory Hess, 65 robbed a petrol station in Seattle. He was caught on CCTV with a handgun, although there was no violence or threats. The polite burglar referred to the victim as ‘sir’ and apologised for his actions. He also assured the owner if he was able to pay the money back he would. Hess approached owner John Henry politely asking: ‘Could you do me a favour – could you empty that till for me, please?’ The request for the contents of the till was so peculiar the man had to explain what he was doing. ‘I’m robbing you, sir.’ Bemused Mr. Henry asked why he was doing this, Hess replied: ‘Because I need the money.’ ‘I have kids that need to be fed, sir. I’m really sorry to have to do this.’

 

After taking the $300 that was in the till Hess left the petrol station insisting: ‘Thank you very much, I really appreciate it. And I’m sorry. And if I ever get back on my feet again, sir, I’ll bring it back.’ It’s not often a robber makes you feel sorry for them, but the politeness of Hess showed a man who was desperate for money just to feed his family.

 

The robber was arrested on Monday. Sargent John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Office told the Daily Mail the accused has: ‘past convictions for forgery and armed robbery.’  Speaking about the burglary Mr. Henry told KIRO 7, a television station: ‘I felt sorry because he will get caught and spend at least 15 years behind bars for what $200 or $300?’

 

Is this the world's politest robber?

 

By Samantha Petter

Posted by Morethan2braincells

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

he comes across as a nice guy driven to it by poverty...so i feel a bit sorry for him. Obviously he broke the law and needs some punishment, but I hope its not too harsh.

Its a bit like that film 'Fun with Dick and Jane'...

Posted 10/02/2011 15:04:47

Posted by sugar sweet

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

sorry but why the hell should he be given any other treatment than any other robber? he has still committed the crime! timeto stop being soft on criminals! ive been in absolutely desperate situations were my mum hasnt been able to afford dinner but did we steal?? no we wnt hungry!

Posted 14/02/2011 16:04:06

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

I felt a bit sorry for him at first until I read the bit about him having other convictions for armed robbery. This wasn't a one off no matter how polite he was.

Posted 15/02/2011 13:55:22

Posted by MGS

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

I feel VERY sorry for this man, he doesnt seem like the rest of the drink-fueld thugs that are usually behind this sort of crime, he was doing it simply to feed his family, better him robbing to feed his kids, than for a thug robbing to feed his drug addiction.

Regarding 'Sugar Sweets' comment, have a bit of fucking compassion, whats wrong with you. He obviously saw this as a last resort! If I was all out of options and my children were starving I would have done the same! He did it in the calmest way, didn't go flinging a gun about and apologised. Im not excusing his actions, but come on, dont be so arrogant and cold hearted.

Posted 15/02/2011 16:29:29

Posted by Boggle Head

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

He doesnt seem like the rest? He could of been making that up about his family starving?
I dont feel sorry for him at all! Instead of going out robbing other people of their money, whats up with getting off his backside n getting a job?
Instead of running around making people feel sorry for him, may i add with a GUN! To be honest i dont think these are the actions of someone wanting to feed his family, its the actions of someone obsessed with money!

Posted 16/02/2011 10:14:29

Posted by sugar sweet

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

well excuse me for having an opinion! MGS explain how im being arrogant???

has this politically correct world gone mad!!! do you know how many people are struggling to feed their kids? what would happen if everyone decided to go on the rob aye??

he doesnt strike me as a family man seeing as he has a GUN that he is obiously not affraid to use and it is a threat in itself just to have it on show whether he said anything or not.

has anyone considered the man who was robbed?lloks like a small run convience store what about his family hmmmm do they not need feeding?

FFS criminals should be treated as criminals! you lot who are defending him i do hope you are never a victim of theft! ask yourself this if a theif stole £300 from your purse but said sorry would you just go awww thats ok what a sweet old man! i dont think so!

Posted 16/02/2011 10:56:56

Posted by Morethan2braincells

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

America is in the same state as we are, masses of repossesions, unemployment and businesses closing. These are hard times for a lot of people. Stealing is against the law I know, but I have to be honest, if my children were starving, I'd steal to feed them.
I guess that makes me a criminal in the making!

Posted 16/02/2011 10:59:14

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

He has past convictions of forgery and armed robbery. Is it then ok to put a gun in people's faces everytime you have no money?? If this was a one off action of a desparate man I would feel compassion, but it's not he's a habitual armed robber. Would everyone still feel sorry for him
if he actually killed someone? I'm having am absolute nightmare at the moment re money, not eating, sleeping etc, believe me it's horrendous,
as anyone who's been in that positon will tell you, but I'm not going around shoving guns in people's faces politely or otherwise.

Posted 17/02/2011 08:59:07

Posted by Morethan2braincells

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

n.s.
Forgive me for speaking out of turn, I don't want to be rude, but there is a difference between being in debt and short of cash (and Ive been there myself) and not being able to afford to go on holiday or something, to literally opening the cupboards to find there is nothing to feed your child. I'm sure he will be punished, and his past convictions don't look good no, I just couldn't help but feel a bit of compassion for him.

Posted 17/02/2011 09:54:35

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

You're not being rude, you have a point, but as you don't know my circumstances, you can't really judge. Believe me, not being able to afford a holiday is the least of my problems! This is not about me, so you don't have to know my situation, but surfice to say you are way off the
mark. So as for being a bit short of cash I wish!! But my point was I still wouldn't use a gun on an innocent shop keeper to get money.

Posted 17/02/2011 10:10:26

Posted by sugar sweet

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

n.s sorry to hear your having problems, hope you can take comfort from the fact your certainly not alone!!

i think the issue here is that yes, you can have compassion for people in bad situations, but when they start doing things like robbing people with a gun your compassion has to go because not everyone in a bad situation does something like that!

Posted 17/02/2011 13:45:55

Posted by MGS

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

As a victim of theft myself I know just how disturbing these incidents can be, the fact that he remained polite and calm says a lot! Most robbers abuse their victims whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally. I know hes a criminal, Im not excusing his actions either, but your seriously telling me you dont feel even the slightest bit sorry for him? What if what he was saying was true, that he did infact need to steal to feed his children and there was no other way of getting the money, would you still insist that hes a scummy criminal? If his reasons are legit, then I respect this guy.

Posted 17/02/2011 13:53:05

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

Thanks Hun. Take no notice of me, just panicking and feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment!

Posted 17/02/2011 13:54:58

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

Above comment was for sugar sweet.
MGS I feel sorry for anyone who can't feed their kids, of course I do! But respect him no!! I think we'll have to agree to differ on this one. As I've said before if this was the only time he'd done it out of sheer despraration, I would understand what you're saying but it's not, he has previous convictions you cannot go around holding people up everytime you need money. I would have more understanding if he was so desperatre he stole food from the shop for his kids, but not using a gun.

Posted 17/02/2011 14:09:08

Posted by sugar sweet

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

you've been a victim of theft so does theat mean you would respect whoever stole from you as long as they had kids that they needed to feed?
exactly n.s if he was genuinly stealing to feed his kids then why didnt he take some food off the shelf?
all crimanals are desperate if you think about it, as i said yes i feel sorry for people in a situation where they cant buy food for their kids but my sympathy goes out the window when they take a gun into a shop and steal from someone who proabably has a family to feed himself! as i said before what would happen if everyone who was in a desperate situation decided to go and rob shops with guns!

Posted 17/02/2011 15:01:08

Posted by MGS

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

Yes, the gun was extremely un-cool, but it still doesnt change my opinion on this matter. We should agree to disagree

Posted 17/02/2011 15:04:09

Posted by sugar sweet

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

yeah my opinion is not going to change and i dont expect yours too either! doesnt make me arrogant though and i dont appreciate being sworn at and talked to in a patronizing way! this is just an opinion forum there is no need to be personal

Posted 17/02/2011 15:14:08

Posted by AlanaButcher

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

urg the guy was telling a lie just to get to all you warm fuzzy soft heartd cant you see that ?????

Posted 25/02/2011 20:13:32

Posted by MotherHen

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

I actually feel very sorry for him. It's like he didn't want to do it but had reached a point of desperation.
The store owner was very kind to offer him a smaller amount of money to go.
It's a sad sad situation. I pity both parties involved.
Having worked evening and night shifts in petrol stations, it was always a niggle in my mind that I may get robbed by someone armed.
I couldn't do the job once I had children for that reason.

Posted 01/03/2011 03:02:30

Posted by MotherHen

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

The whole CCTV showed the shopkeeper offering him 40 dollars and he'd say no more about it but the "robber" explained he also had bills to pay as well as kids to feed. Maybe he needed to keep a roof over their heads. I don't know what welfare system there is in the states if any but he was desperate, he was polite, didn't terrify the shop guy out of his skin and if he had come into me at the petrol stations (where we were an easy target and always told to keep minimum money in the til, whilst having a floor safe inaccessible to us, we were told to hand over whatever they asked and not put ourselves at risk) I would have happily handed it over to this guy even if I did put up resistance to arrogant ones, lol. Luckily the situation never arose.
Bless this man. Never mind prev convictions, they could have been in his teens ffs. I hope he will get a lenient sentence due to his manners and lack of aggression towards the shopkeeper.

Posted 01/03/2011 03:16:52

Posted by n.s

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

I'm sorry, but even if his convictions were years ago, so what, do you not think he should have learnt from his mistakes now he's an adult? Pointing a gun at someone over and over again is wrong. As I said before, I would have every sympathy for him if he stole food for his family, not threatening someones life.

Posted 01/03/2011 11:44:20

Posted by pipi

RE: Polite robber knows his manners

if that was ok everyone would do it dont you think

Posted 17/01/2013 15:12:36



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